Personal profiling systems have long been used to characterize an individual's unique personality, character traits, preferences, and behaviors. In creating a personal or behavioral profile, people have filled out questionnaires and taken surveys that ask a variety of questions. The questions are often set up in multiple-choice format, or in the form of a Likert scale, e.g., scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is low or weak and 5 is high or strong. The surveys may be compiled as aggregated data and assessed in order to attribute a certain general character trait to the person. For example, the result of the survey may be an indication or statement that the person is conservative or liberal, or that the person is a hard-driving type-A or easy-going type-B. However, the information content is limited and often times too vague or general to be useful. Having only a simple statement that a person is type-A or type-B does not convey much specific or useful information about his or her overall behavioral profile.
There are numerous situations and applications where knowledge of relevant behavior profiles is relevant to a successful outcome. In sales and marketing applications, the more the salesperson knows about the personal profile of the customer, the better job he or she can do in meeting the customer's needs and closing the sale. In dating services, the more one client can learn about the persona of another client, the more likely the pairing will be enjoyable and successful for all concerned. In career counseling settings, the person's behavioral profile is directly relevant to finding the right job match.
A need exists to establish and communicate personal profiles in a meaningful and efficient manner to communicate information and understand behavior characteristics.